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by Kharon



Series: Red [9]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Future Fic, Gen, Next Generation, Suna Village
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-22 13:59:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13168410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kharon/pseuds/Kharon
Summary: "Patrol to the east," Hayashi informs him, "Three Chunin, they'll engage the third division of the left wing in 2.5 minutes."





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**Author's Note:**

> I apologize for the long delay. This is my third attempt at this chapter. Tenses might be messed up at some point, I tried to fix it as much as possible.

"Patrol to the east," Hayashi informs him, "Three Chunin, they'll engage the third left wing in 2.5 minutes."

Sasori doesn't need to tell Takaro to act, his second-in-command is already whispering orders into his comm to delay the two outermost wings and have the third division mislead the patrol into chasing a decoy off track.

He never fought with a Hyuuga on his side before, and after three weeks of working with the young man he still marvels at the wonder that is his eyes. It makes him understand a little better why the clan seal their eyes to prevent them falling into enemy hands.

Hayashi bears no mark however.

Only when he took off his forehead protector for the first time did Akashi truly realize how valuable an ally he is. Hayashi's aunt, who he is supposed to resemble greatly in looks, has no children, and he is an only child. If he dies in wind country the Hyuuga have lost their future leader - him being here is a sign of confidence that shook Akashi more than it should have.

This is his war more than anyone else's, and he expected to fight it alone. Now there are more shinobi at his side than he ever imagined, however. The knowledge makes him uneasy.

Takaro catches up with him, his voice clear against the silence of the desert, "Narumi and Shikara both recommend the north-western side for a breach. Nobody has noticed anything out of the ordinary yet... ETA for the head is half an hour, forty-five minutes for the wingtips."

 _I owe you_. That's what he told his little cousin when she volunteered for infiltrating Sunagakure. She just shrugged and left, and Sasori knows that if she dies it's as much on him as on her.

"Hayashi," he calls out, and in an instant the man is beside him, "You and Takaro will lead the head to the city wall. After the breach stay back, both of you; secure the tower when the worst of the fight has cleared."

"Where will you go, Captain?" Hayashi asks, his white eyes looking into Akashi's very soul.

"To cause a distraction," is all he replies.

There is nothing he has to say to Takaro, nothing they haven't discussed long into the night every day over the last week. They've both said their part, and it made his soul so much lighter than he ever thought possible.

He'll never have _peace_ , but right now he's as close to it as he'll ever get.

"See ya, Captain," the other man says while he pulls him into a brotherly hug – him and Genji were team mates, but still he was never as close to Takaro's older brother as he is to him, and Akashi is grateful, so grateful, that if he dies it won't be without a friend.

They separate and he heads west without looking back.

It comes down to him and Akaya. The older and the younger, the boy and the girl, two sides of a coin that were inseparable once. For over twenty years they were always by each other's side, to break apart on their father's death and never reunite again.

He never wanted any of it. The fame, the prestige, the deference, the _burden_ , it was always on the back of his mind, a constant reminder, a pressure that never eased.

_You are the son of a kage. Look at your parents, geniuses the both of them. Your chakra control is unbelievable boy, why don't you become a healer like your mother? Take responsibility. Make our village proud._

His mother never expected him to become great, just to always give his best, and his father would have loved him fiercely even if he'd chosen to become a civilian – with his family he'd only ever been Akashi, even after he'd earned the moniker of Sasori.

Akaya shined from a young age, bright and lively, warm in soul and with an open heart that never ceased to amaze him. She had always been better at making friends than he was – people turned to her for her compassion and her unwillingness to accept injustice. She promised them peace and justice, and made both happen whenever possible.

This is why he loves her, why he was devoted to her from childhood through adolescence into adulthood.

Akashi was never like that. He held grudges, he wanted to spit at the people that treated them unfairly; he didn't say much, but would get into a fight over a disdainful look directed at him.

All of his life he's wanted for people to _like_ him, yes, but he also wanted to earn it. He wanted them to look at him as a person, not the son or brother of anyone, just Akashi – and when he finally achieved his goal, they called him _Sasori_. They respected him for how good a killer he was, how good an asset to his village, and he thought it would be enough because Akashi was loved by his family, so what did it matter is everyone else loved the other side of him?

It hadn't mattered… not until Gaara died.

His father died more than twenty years ago. Akashi doesn't remember much of it anymore. The emotions are still there, the grief, the hurt, the numbness, but by now only few memories of what happened remain clear in his mind.

He remembers his mother's tears, Akaya standing tall and motionless at the funeral, the unease that overcame him when council-member Yoshito first approached them about selecting a new kage.

 _It had to be one of them_ , he told them, leaving no room whatsoever for doubt or discussion.

Even then Akashi recoiled at the thought of taking his father's burden when his own was almost too heavy to carry. It must have been visible in his face, for the elder gave him a disapproving look, and Akaya frowned, both hurt and confused at him shrinking away from their legacy.

She agreed of course, had not for one second considered another path, and that had become the first crack in their relationship.

They'd went to bed that night without talking, drained and exhausted from the funeral, and the next morning it had been decided already: Akaya was to be Godaime Kazekage and he her first advisor, her second-in-command.

That was when he first felt _dread_ , standing in their father's office with council-members and the highest ranking shinobi, grim faces everywhere and the thought that their mother was home alone while her children had nothing better to do than turn themselves into a replacement of her dead husband.

 _Wrong. This is wrong, we're wrong. I shouldn't be here_ , he'd thought.

Twenty years later he knows that many of the other shinobi expected nothing else from him, had feared that he would not be satisfied being a mere advisor, that he'd want the glory and prestige for himself – how wrong they'd been.

It hadn't been about their father, it had been about control. Control of Akaya, of her incredible power, but more, so much more, about control of him. Control of his power and his alliance, without any doubt.

 _You will stand by your sister, won't you?_ and the disappointment on Akaya's face when he didn't immediately agree, did not raise his voice to swear loyalty to her but instead flinched at the words.

This is what he remembers. The betrayal in her eyes. The betrayal he'd felt in return. The argument. Their mother, pleading with them to see reason, bags under her eyes from lack of sleep. Akaya screaming, _"You were supposed to always be by my side!"_

Rage. Guilt. Hurt. Shame. Betrayal.

He'd run. Turned and left the room, the house, walked into the street, noticed how people recoiled from the turmoil inside him, wandered through the village, stopped in front of the Kazekage building, turned and ran, the wind whipping the tears from his face, until Sunagakure lay behind him and there was only desert.

The only time he'd come home was for Sakura's funeral. They hadn't spoken a word, then.

Now Akashi is back, is finally able to marvel at the giant walls of Sunagakure again where they emerge from the surrounding desert at the horizon.

He doesn't head towards them however, but moves to the south-east first and then to then west when he has almost passed the village. He circles Suna until the deep gash in the wall that is the main gate comes into view.

Sasori is not hiding. He comes for his home in plain sight, his dark brown coat flapping in the wind, gathering the attention of every ninja on guard duty.

There are no attacks however.

Not a single kunai or shuriken is thrown at him, no blades of wind or bullets of earth, no shinobi intercepting him, none of the set traps in the ground going off.

They watch instead, watch as he comes. Some faces, too few, Akashi recognizes, but most he doesn't, can't put a name to the people looking at him with determination, anger and fear.

 _"Akaya has always been predictable, you never were. They were afraid of you,"_ Takaro said.

His friend was right. How right Akashi only realizes now, where the air around him is heavy with dread. They fear him for his name, for his reputation, and because none of them can foresee what he'll do next, why he has finally come back.

With one jump he has cleared the wall, is high enough in the sky to see the sun starting to rise in the east and Akaya standing unmoving on top of the barrage.

Their eyes meet over the distance, green and teal.

"She can lead a village, but you can topple it."

**Author's Note:**

> It's done! For some reason this chapter was the hardest to write by far. I wrote a page, scrapped everything, wrote another page, scrapped that too, then wrote something, realized I was getting off track and scrapped half of that as well. It was a nightmare.
> 
> There are a lot of secondary characters in this, because it's Suna and they have their own citizens, their own shinobi. They are Akashi's people, they are what he fights for. I wanted to show some of that and also some more background on him, Akaya and their relationship.
> 
> The biggest tragedy happened to Sakura though, and imagining how she must have felt in all of this makes me feel like an asshole for writing this.


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